Thursday, September 18, 2014

Planetary Annihilation Gameplay Review

The game retains the massive scale of Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander. The single player Galactic War campaign mode features randomized galaxies where the player navigates across the stars, engaging enemy commanders in each system and gathering new technologies that unlock additional units. Skirmish games are also available against the AI and online. Currently, the game cannot be played offline (even in single player mode) and a match cannot be saved mid-game. A robust system editor allows custom systems of planets and moons to be created. The interface allows for quick camera movement to other planets; it also displays unit icons when zoomed out, supports continuous build modes, and actions can be queued using the shift key. Metal is collected from fixed points on each planet, while energy can be produced anywhere. It is important to maintain a positive balance of both metal and energy, or production will be less efficient. Fabricators can be used to assist in the construction of buildings and units, allowing for the use of excess resources.Vehicles, bots, air, naval, and orbital units are made at factories; more advanced (and expensive) versions can be built at advanced factories. Defensive turrets and shields can be placed, radar can display enemy positions, and teleports can allow for quick movement between planets. Games rarely stalemate, as rockets can be strapped to smaller moons to slam them into larger planets and annihilate everything in their wake, or a metallic Death Star could be constructed to vaporize and entire world. The AI is competent and provides a good challenge offline. The fast pace, huge battles, unique end-game destruction, and varied strategies supported by Planetary Annihilation make it a very satisfying large-scale real-time strategy game.